What a day – we left the sanity of Antalya for a long bus ride heading up to the north of Turkey. We saw some beautiful sights, and ended the day …

After a couple of food stops (gee – we hope the tour leader is getting good commission) the major stop for the day was Pamukkale. Here there are amazing white terraces and an ancient Roman city.

The Amphitheatre

Karla remembers pictures of sister Lynne bathing in the white Terraces many years ago when she was here. Well, we were in for a big surprise. First of all, the water is only partially flowing over the Terraces – as they need the rest for irrigation. Such a small part – and us as Kiwis were thinking of the pink and white terraces in NZ – it was really disappointing. Apparently the terraces part only flows water in small bits – and is deteriorating the terraces themselves. If you want to see this – get here soon – because it isn’t going to last. Even our tour guide took photos of the damage that has been made to the Terraces from a walkway that was built recently. All the mud flows through from the walkway to the terraces – spoiling the white terraces.

Heiropolis is the old roman town above the terraces, and it was built on solid rock – with little dirt. The excavations here apparently need to use jackhammers – which of course ruins artefacts. Nevertheless, Neil and Karla climbed to the top of the main theatre of the town – and the walk was worth it.

Terraces with no water...

There were only 3 people from our tour group that made it to the theatre (including us). We also insisted on going to the Suburban Theatre – despite our tour guide insisting that we were wasting our time. What we saw was a theatre in complete ruins which contrasted to the main theatre which had been restored (in a limited way). Nice to see stuff that hasn’t been touched. The view from here is awesome – and it was worth the walk.

We walked among the necropolis – essentially a graveyard with about 7000 tombs – awesome stuff. When we arrived at our hotel nearby, we walked off the bus with bottles of water and got told “nein” (guessing German for “no” – they think all white people are german here). We told the tour guide and he went ballistic with the hotel staff. Apparently, they don’t want us to bring water in, and insist that we pay hotel prices for bottles of water (some smuggling then ensued). We completely disagree (as does the tour lead) with this approach – and it put us off from the hotel for a start. Add the pokey rooms and the feeling of Stalag 19, and we took a hike as quickly as we could. There was no way this hotel was getting one brass razoo from us!

Neil and Karla met up with another tour traveller, Elaine, and headed down a dodgy track (going goodness knows where). Thankfully our efforts paid off, and we found a little township and a pub (of sorts) where we had a couple of beers. The locals were amusing, and we were glad to be free of the ‘prison’.

Beer in the local town